Royal Princess Loses Power in the Mediterranean

Cruise Fever reports that Princess Cruises’ newest cruise ship, the Royal Princess, experienced a loss of power in the Mediterranean as the cruise ship was sailing between Mykonos and Naples. Here’s what Cruise Fever is saying:

The cruise ship lost power around 1:30 P.M. local time.

Emergency generators started.

Toilets and emergency services are functional.

The captain is providing updated information.

"Power is in the process of being restored."

So far I do not see any news organizations reporting on the incident. Cruise Fever states that there has been no indication regarding why the Royal Princess lost power.

The incident has the potential to be another major embarrassment for the cruise industry, following a series of engine failures and engine room fires. The Royal Princess is Princess’s newest cruise ship which was debuted with great fanfare in June 2013. It is owned by Carnival which is struggling with its image following the Splendor and Triumph engine room fires / failures where the Carnival cruise ships had to be towed back to the U.S.

Here’s a statement from Princess Cruises this evening as of 6:00 P.M.:

"Today at approximately 1:30 pm local time, Royal Princess experienced a power outage. Power has since been restored and the ship is currently en route to Naples. During the power outage, an emergency backup generator was used to provide essential services, such as toilets. The ship is not in any danger, and the Captain has been keeping passengers regularly informed about the situation. The ship is currently on the seventh day of a 12-day Mediterranean cruise that departed Venice on September 15. There are 3,594 passengers and 1,336 crew members onboard."

As you can see below, Princess Cruises’ web cam for the Royal Princess cruise ship seems to show a lighted ship as of 19:12 GMT heading for port in Italy.

Cruise Critic posted the following information about the incident:

Cruise Critic member funnyfingers heard from family members onboard that "they were without power for 4.5 hours and had to cancel the Naples stop" . . .

A Princess Facebook fan posted on Princess’ page today that "the ship has had many other problems in the past eight days, plumbing, electrical, air-conditioning, and last night we were delayed leaving Mykonos for over four hours because they couldn’t get the anchor up."

September 23 2013 Update: The ship will be taken out of service for repairs. The remainder of the cruise is cancelled. The passengers will be disembarked in Naples and flown home. Princess has promised to provide a refund of the cruise fare and a 25 percent credit. The power outage on Sunday reportedly lasted for at least 3.5 hours.

What is Carnival’s problem? Bad design? Poor construction? Sloppy maintenance? Bad training? All of the above plus other things I haven’t thought of?

Charles mathias

This was not the first power failure for this ship. Cruise Critic reviewer “Sinbadsailor” states on August 20th around 9:30pm the power went out twice and the Royal Princess was dead in the water for 30 minutes until power was restored. This ship is repositioning from Venice to Ft. Lauderdale Oct. 9th (18 days) The middle of the Atlantic would not be a great place for another problem. Hope all goes well, I am sailing on it Nov. 3rd.

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Cruise ship accidents, injuries, crimes, disappearances, fires, and collisions on the high seas involve issues of maritime law. Jim Walker graduated from law school in 1983 and has been handling maritime law cases for the past thirty-five years. He handles a wide variety of cases from serious injuries to the highest profile sexual assault and cruise crime cases.